IU President Michael A. McRobbie Announces Intention to Retire

Indiana University president Michael A. McRobbie announced that he plans to retire on June 30, 2021.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana University president Michael A. McRobbie wrote in a letter to IU students Friday that he intends to retire on June 30, 2021.

McRobbie has been the president at Indiana for 13 years and has been in senior positions for over 24 years.

Below is the full letter from McRobbie:

Dear IU students, colleagues and friends,

This morning, at IU's Board of Trustees meeting, I announced that I intend to retire from my position as IU president as planned on June 30, 2021.

By then, I will have had the enormous privilege and honor of serving as president of Indiana's flagship public university for more than 14 years and in senior positions here for 24 years — over a third of my life. I am immensely proud of all that has been accomplished over the period I have been president, including keeping IU affordable and accessible to all, graduating record numbers of students, substantially increasing the diversity of the student body, carrying out the most comprehensive academic overhaul ever in our history, rejuvenating our international engagement and supporting excellent research that has improved the quality of lives of Hoosiers across our state. All of this change and effort has, I believe, consolidated and elevated IU's position as one of America's premier and leading research universities, and I look forward to reviewing these accomplishments in detail in my final State of the University address later this year. 

But all these accomplishments — and many more — are not a one-person show. They are the collective product of the hard and unremitting work of IU's outstanding senior leaders, the strong support of superb faculty who have embraced change, engaged and talented students who have and will continue to go on to become leaders in their chosen fields, and exceptional staff whose professionalism and dedication have been the linchpin of so many of our successes. I am immensely grateful to all of you.

I am also honored and grateful to have led IU through its Bicentennial Year, and I am especially thankful to those whose dedicated efforts allowed us to complete most of the activities associated with this historic commemoration and celebration of IU's first 200 years. We will also be announcing in October the successful completion of our For All: The Indiana University Bicentennial Campaign and our Bicentennial Strategic Plan.

Given the successful conclusion of all of these Bicentennial initiatives, announcing my retirement now will ensure that the IU Board of Trustees will have enough time to commence a search for my successor and identify the right individual to build upon and sustain the extensive gains we have made over the past 13 years. 

Of course, there is never a good time to leave the place and people you love, and I recognize that my message arrives as we are all working tirelessly — and with great courage and resolve — to ensure the safest possible start to the fall semester. I am completely committed to continuing to work alongside you this year to overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that the university emerges better than ever from this present crisis.

I will have many people to thank and many more thoughts to share with you in the weeks and months ahead. But for now, I pledge to maintain my focus on working with you toward ensuring a safe and successful fall semester and ensuring we adapt creatively to new developments and challenges as they happen, just as IU has done so often in the past 200 years of its storied history.

With my most sincere thanks, as always, for all that you do for IU,

Michael A. McRobbie
President
Indiana University